Solar System Missions update 2024-07

Here's my map of all active and planned Solar System Missions and their destinations as of July 1st 2024.

The Chinese Chang'e 6 lunar farside sample return mission has delivered the sample probe with the first lunar farside samples back to Earth. what the bus will ddo next we will see...

NASA's Juno has it's 63th perijove at Jupiter. Starliner may return to Earth.

I'm still waiting for news from zhe Japanese Akatsuki Venus mission, which has problems since April, as well as from Bepi Colombo.

Data, images and documentation are available on my space exploration history GitHub repository and the associated website.

Solar System Missions update 2024-06

Here's my map of all active and planned Solar System Missions and their destinations as of June 1st 2024.

The Japanese SLIM lander has not woken up on the lastest sunrise, but JAXA hasn't given up yet. Neither have they done that with the Akatsuki Venus mission, which seems to have problems since April.

The Chinese Chang'e 6 lunar farside sample return mission touches down on the Moon this month, and if everything works return the sample probe at the end of June. The Chang'e 5 bus has left the lunar NRO orbit to a heliocentric one, heading to only CNSA knows, so I put it on 'somewhere beyond the Earth/Moon system'.

NASA's Juno has it's 62th perijove at Jupiter. Parker Solar Probe performs the 20th perihelions at a distance of 0.0528 AU. In other NASA news, the Starliner spacecraft may perform the first crewed mission to the ISS this Month.

Data, images and documentation are available on my space exploration history GitHub repository and the associated website.

Solar System Missions update 2024-05

Here's my map of all active and planned Solar System Missions and their destinations as of May 1st 2024.

The Japanese SLIM lander has woken up again after the 3rd lunar night.Go JAXA! The Chinese Chang'e 6 lunar farside sample return mission will launch early in May.

NASA's Juno has its 61th perijove at Jupiter. In other NASA news, the Starliner spacecraft may perform the first crewed mission to the ISS this Month.

Data, images and documentation are available on my space exploration history GitHub repository and the associated website.

Solar System Missions update 2024-04

Here's my map of all active and planned Solar System Missions and their destinations as of April 1st 2024.

The Japanese SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) lander has woken up again after the 2nd lunar night.Go JAXA! New arrival in lunar orbit are the Chinese Queqiao 2 communication relay for the lunar farside and the Tiandu 1/2 navigation sattelites. The Chang'e 6 lunar farside sample return mission will follow in May.

NASA's Juno has its 60th perijove at Jupiter. In other NASA news, due to budget constraints many mission are in danger of delay or cancellation, including Mars sample return missions. Pending further news i've left the scheduled dates intact for the time being.

Data, images and documentation are available on my space exploration history GitHub repository and the associated website.

Solar System Missions update 2024-03

Here's my map of all active and planned Solar System Missions and their destinations as of March 1st 2024.

The Japanese SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) lander has woken up after lunar night. Hang in there kiddo! The CLPS mission Intuitive Machines Odysseus has landed, maybe a bit sideways, but nevertheless successful, and now has the chance to show the same resilience as brother SLIM.

NASA's Parker Solar Prob has its 19th perihelion at 0.0528 AU, and Juno its 59th perijove at Jupiter.

Data, images and documentation are available on my space exploration history GitHub repository and the associated website.

Solar System Missions update 2024-02

Here's my map of all active and planned Solar System Missions and their destinations as of February 1st 2024.

The Japanese SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) lunar lander hqw landed, went dead, came back, and now is likely gone forever, all in 2 weeks! Also gone are the first Mars helicopter Ingenuity, and the first NASA CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) missions Astrobotic Peregrine. The next CLPS mission Intuitive Machines NOVA-C IM-1 is planned to launch early this month.

Indian ISROs Asitya L1 has arrived at the Earth-Sun Lagrange point L1. Juno has its 58th perijove at Jupiter, this month with the second of two close Io flybys at 1500 km distance.

Data, images and documentation are available on my space exploration history GitHub repository and the associated website.

Moon phases 2024

This chart contains Moon phases for every day of the year 2024. The 2 lunar eclipses that happen this year are shaded in orange, light for the penumbral, darker for the partial one, and normal full moons in white.

Interactive sky map with planetary and lunar positions.